Design Crusaders Seek to Save Iconic...

Design Crusaders Seek to Save Iconic Architecture

Hotel Lautner plays host to an evening of midcentury revelry and preservation.

Despite the immense popularity of midcentury modern architecture and culture, iconic buildings from that era are torn down every year to make space for new development. In Los Angeles alone, the battle has raged in recent months to protect midcentury buildings, from the Litton Savings building designed by Kurt Meyer which could be razed to make way for a new Frank Gehry project, to Welton Beckett’s Parker Center, which the City of LA is proposing to replace with a new office building.

Enter celebrity interior designers Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield. The Los Angeles design duo have long been advocates of architectural preservation, having worked on homes designed by Donald Wexler, Richard Neutra, and James Allen Walter. Now, they’ve started a non-profit foundation called Save Iconic Architecture that aims to champion the fight to preserve significant architecture as art.

Find out more about Save Iconic Architecture at Modernism Week, where the preservation organization will be co-hosting “A Night for Preservation” with Hotel Lautner owners Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge at the award-winning restored Desert Hot Springs boutique hotel, designed by legendary midcentury architect John Lautner.

It remains to be seen what kinds of projects Save Iconic Architecture will take on in the future, but this special evening will give guests a peek at what an award winning restoration looks like.